The number of businesses using Internet telephony (referred to herein generally as “VoIP”) continues to increase, thanks to the flexibility and cost savings the technology provides. However, large numbers of businesses continue to rely on PBX systems for many of their telephony needs.
As businesses evolve through acquisition or other growth, they are often faced with the problem of integrating different telephony systems. For example, businesses are commonly faced with the problem of integrating a VoIP system (e.g., such as one used by a call center) with a PBX-based system (e.g., such as one used by a business' back office). Unless the PBX system is specifically designed to integrate with a VoIP system, the integration can provide undesirable loss of calling features. For example, it may not be possible to transfer calls from extensions at the VoIP system to extensions at the PBX system, or to conference back-office workers into active calls in the VoIP system. The loss or inability to readily provide these features can dramatically reduce the ability of a business to perform important business functions.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus that overcame the drawbacks of the prior art. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for integrating Internet telephony with PBX telephony. More particularly, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for transferring a call in a network which consists of both a PBX and an Internet telephony system.